continued from last episode of sulking...

[keryx]

I don't have any cigarettes, either.

Although this is fine. I feel badly for those of you who have to really work to quit smoking, or who feel compelled to smoke a lot. Actually, there's a distinction made in The Tipping Point between non-smokers, serious smokers/addicts, and the light smokers like me. Gladwell calls the last "chippers" (I don't know if it's just a term he uses, or if it's common), meaning they're (genetically, he thinks) sensitive enough to nicotine to gain pleasure from it (unlike people who never smoke), but not sensitive enough to ever get addicted.

Basically, I've smoked at most a pack a week, and unless I'm completely stressed or in a very habit-triggering situation (party or club, with others smoking, driving home from work), I can do without - and I could pretty easily do without even in those circumstances. The downside is, because I can quit for a week or even several months with no major effort, I don't think I have the stake in quitting that some folk do; like I don't have to work at it, so the pleasantness of taking up smoking again always seems okay. I have a hard time imagining completely quitting because of this.

And it may be just a genetic predilection. The role of genes in behavior (if any) fascinates me.

Comments

[firecat]

Ah, a name for my former smoking habit! I used to smoke 2-3 cigarettes a day defensively so I wouldn't be bothered by my roommate's and boyfriend's smoking. When I got a place of my own, I stopped because I was no longer interested.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I am in the same boat with you. Call me chipper.

[lil-ms-drama.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with the two of you. For S&G's last week I bought a pack and I smoked all of one and threw out the other one I tried to smoke. It tasted terrible.

It's okay, really.

[rackletang.livejournal.com]

Even though we are in different boats, I appreciate your ability to be so... full of empathy. (Empathic sounds new agey, empathetic sounds like an insult, so full of empathy will have to do.) :)

I have figured I have to live in a world where people smoke, including some of my best friends - so I may as well get used to it.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

"Chipping" is used to describe casual skin-popping among heroin users.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Ew. Clearly neither Malcolm Gladwell nor I are up on drug culture slang.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Actually, it sounds like he was using it in exactly that sense; the heroin users who chip have the same light-user status (and [presumptive non-addiction) that your 2-3 cigarette/day smokers do.